Byron Dorgan: “very briefly, deep in this reconciliation bill is a provision that would eliminate the longstanding rule preventing the…”

“very briefly, deep in this reconciliation bill is a provision that would eliminate the longstanding rule preventing the IRS from using private collection companies to collect IRS debt. First of all, this provision has never had a hearing in the Senate. There was one hearing in the House last week, and it raised far more questions than it answered. Let me make a point that we had a test of this some years ago--in 1996. This small test showed that we had people getting calls at 4 o'clock in the morning from private collection agencies. The former IRS Commissioner said if Congress were to appropriate $296 million to hire additional IRS compliance employees to work on these accounts, the IRS would collect $9 billion. This bill puts in more money than that and says it will collect $900 million, which is only one-tenth of the amount. I don't think we ought to decide that we ought to provide private collection agencies the responsibility to collect this debt. This is a responsibility of the Federal Government. In any event, why would you want to spend money for something that is one-tenth as effective as what the Commissioner says can be done with the IRS? I ask for a favorable vote on this amendment.”